by Dan Eichenberger MD, MBA In every era, people face hardship. What changes is how societies respond. Ancient cultures — especially Greece, Rome and early Christianity — emphasized agency, resilience and personal responsibility. Today, many of our institutions promote the opposite: a victim mentality that externalizes blame, demands validation  and weakens character. History suggests that tough love — accountability, endurance and honest feedback — builds stronger individuals and societies than coddling ever could. Ancient Greece and Rome were…

by Mark Franke To listen to typical conversations these days, one can easily get the impression that most issues have simple answers. It seems that no matter the question at hand, the responses are quick in coming and declarative to the extreme. One friend of mine ends his strongly opinionated statements with “Period!”. That is what I like about my monthly Socratic discussion group. While we don’t check our personal opinions at the door, we…

Muslim Sensitivities “Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” — G.K. Chesterton WE HAVE WAITED long enough for someone in the GOP leadership to defend the lieutenant governor’s right to describe Islam as “demonic,” to hate it even. That none has done so says a lot about the Indiana Republican Party. The Council on American-Islamic Relations took immediate umbrage and dismissed his concerns as “imaginary.” But the lieutenant governor’s characterization, on his reading of Muslim statements,…

‘Affordable’ Housing “A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling ‘Stop,’ at a time when no one is inclined to do so.” — Mission Statement, the National Review READING UP on the Indianapolis “Vacant to Vibrant” housing plan, I’m honestly having trouble differentiating it from Zohran Mamdani’s New York City.  Both assume that “affordable” housing is independent of the incentives (lower taxes, fewer regulations, public safety, practical zoning) that would attract private investment to build…

by Mark Frank Memorial Day is here again and much of our attention will be on those who died in service to their, our, country. As a popular meme says: All gave some. Some gave all. It is those who gave all that focus our memories now, while in November we thank everyone who served. That is a significant difference, one that is not merely conceptual. Sometimes remembering our fallen military hits close to home.…

Horse Thieves Matter THE SON OF PIONEERS in the Flint Hills of Kansas, my sheriff grandfather was familiar with the story of “the Sedgwick County Anti-Horse-Thieving Association” — or the SCAHTA as it was never known because they were blessedly free of acronyms back then.  Let us just say that it would not have fit into the defund-the-police messaging, nor would grandfather have known what you were even talking about. In the winter of 1870 a group of 60 or so…

James Briggs: The New Journalism WE DON’T ENJOY discouraging a fellow journalist. First of all, nobody cares. It is “inside baseball,” as an editor of mine liked to say. Our members have more important things to do. Still, any job has standards and after some decades in the business (note that I didn’t say “profession”) I have a right to express my understanding of them — standards that James Briggs of the Indianapolis Star fails to meet. I start with what…

Unserving ‘the Unhoused’ OUR MAYOR has thrown down the NIMBY gauntlet. She is trying to shame opponents of her plan to build a $3.8 million “homeless services” center downtown, a couple of blocks from the  art museum. She says they selfishly don’t want the center in their backyard but cannot offer an alternative plan. I am here to help, but first some background. Our foundation once had offices near a rescue mission and not far from…

Let’s Pack the U.S. House GALLUP REPORTS this week that the approval rate of Congress has fallen to 10 percent. Coincidentally, a Butler graduate student, Evan Wareham, has an intriguing idea — reapportionment on steroids. What if we reformed the U.S. House of Representatives by adding members to increase per-capita representation? That, please know, was the original plan. In the Federalist Papers, James Madison argued that the House of Representatives should expand with the size of the American population. …

by Dan Eichenberger MD, MBA Ancient civilizations recognized pride, or hubris, as a recurring human vulnerability with serious consequences. In Greek mythology and tragedy, excessive arrogance — defying natural limits or overestimating one’s place—invariably led to nemesis, or downfall. The tale of Icarus, who ignored his father’s warnings and flew too close to the sun, melting his wax wings, served as a cautionary archetype. Similarly, figures like Niobe, who boasted of her superiority, or Oedipus, whose…